E-Voting Bill Introduced

My Congressman, Rep. Rush Holt, has introduced an important e-voting bill, H.R. 2239. The bill would address the serious concerns raised by a broad coalition of computer scientists (including me) about the security and trustworthiness of electronic voting systems.

The bill would do three main things. First, it would require that voting systems generate a paper trail that the voter can verify at the time he/she votes. Second, it would require the software used in voting machines to be open for public inspection. Third, it would institute random, surprise recounts in 0.5% of jurisdictions, as a quality control measure. The bill also contains safeguards to ensure that disabled voters can cast their votes.

The text of the bill is not yet on the House’s web site; I’ll post a link here when it becomes available. I have seen a preview copy of the bill, and I think it does an excellent job of ensuring that our transition to e-voting maintains the trustworthiness of our elections. I support it strongly, and I hope you will do so too.

Freedom to Tinker is hosted by Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, a research center that studies digital technologies in public life. Here you'll find comment and analysis from the digital frontier, written by the Center's faculty, students, and friends.